ISABEL ESCODA
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But isn't all life itself one big question?
HONG KONG
Looking at the state of the world today, isn’t it obvious
that we live in an age of uncertainty? One in which
there are more questions than answers?
Questions like what’s to become of Iraq, or whether
next year’s shoe styles won’t be pointy but squarish, or
where exactly is Kyrgyzstan, and why it is that men who
gel their hair in spikes look like utter drongos?
Meanwhile, here in Hong Kong, haven’t we been
wondering how long it will be before we can walk
across from Queen’s Pier to Tsim Sha Tsui without
getting our feet wet? In fact, won’t they have to rename
“Queen’s Pier” to “Central Promenade”?
And who was it spreading rumors that developers are
thinking of demolishing the HSBC building (it’s more
than five years old, after all) to be redesigned so that
the decibel levels of Pinays chattering beneath it on
Sundays can be modulated?
Is the story that Chater Road along the Mandarin Hotel
and Legislative Building will be renamed Luzviminda
Drive just a cruel joke?
Isn’t another conundrum the one about people
wagering when the Chief Executive will finally appear
in public wearing a regular necktie, thus putting an end
to silly remarks that he resembles that cute Disney
fowl? And will it ever be revealed that the late
zillionaire Nina Wang bequeathed a neat sum to her
Filipino amah who had been faithfully styling her
pigtails?
More to the point, what about newspaper reports that
the Hong Kong government may raise the minimum
wage, perhaps also restoring foreign domestics’
salaries to their former levels? Wouldn’t this be a
vindication for the migrant workers whose wages were
arbitrarily and unjustly slashed when the economy
was in the doldrums?
Weren’t those local workers and unionists who
demonstrated by marching backwards to Government
House on April 29 to press their demands a gutsy
bunch?
So why is it, now that Hong Kong’s economy is
booming, that the fat cat officials aren’t thinking of
spreading some of the wealth around, particularly
among the lowest wage earners? Is it fair that street
sweepers earn HK$4,500, toilet cleaners earn
HK$4,850, while domestics entrusted with the care of
Hong Kong’s families, earn a mere HK$3,400?
On top of which, why were demoralised Pinoy migrant
workers viewing the senatorial elections in Manila by
saying “Wala namang mangyari, mandadaya pa rin
sila”?
Why is everyone so jaded this year, compared to the
fine enthusiasm displayed during 2004’s presidential
election?
Hadn’t we been clamoring for absentee voting not too
long ago, so why are we being so perverse now? Is
the reason many won’t bother voting this May because
the winner of the 2004 presidential election (that one
on whom great hopes were invested) turned out to be
a huge disappointment – especially for female voters?
Was it foolish of us to dream of having an intelligent
female president rejuvenating her country, instead of
yet another male leader ruining it?
Why is it, whenever some slick senators turn up in
Hong Kong to take a breather from the quagmire in
Manila, many folks line up with them to smile into the
cameras as though the junketing politicians were God’
s Gift to the Philippines?
By calling themselves the Genuine Opposition (GO –
also termed GaGO by a prominent Manila analyst), are
those pols implying that oppositionists in the Party List
are bogus? Does the Pinoy tendency to vote for
vacuous filmstars and flakey athletes prove that we
simply refuse to take life seriously, which is why we’re
forever cracking jokes?
Has this state of affairs been caused by a meltdown of
our brain cells because our eyes are forever focused
on moronic TV shows, our ears constantly glued to
banal cellphone chatter and our fingers incessantly
tapping out illiterate text messages?
Do we prefer to live in a fantasy world peopled by
clueless celebrities and smarmy preachers because
real life is such a snake-pit? Is it all really an escape
from the daily grind of wiping kids’s bottoms,
scrubbing toilets, cooking noodles, walking dogs,
haggling with vendors and putting up with cranky
employers?
Isn’t all of life just one big question?
HONG KONG
Looking at the state of the world today, isn’t it obvious
that we live in an age of uncertainty? One in which
there are more questions than answers?
Questions like what’s to become of Iraq, or whether
next year’s shoe styles won’t be pointy but squarish, or
where exactly is Kyrgyzstan, and why it is that men who
gel their hair in spikes look like utter drongos?
Meanwhile, here in Hong Kong, haven’t we been
wondering how long it will be before we can walk
across from Queen’s Pier to Tsim Sha Tsui without
getting our feet wet? In fact, won’t they have to rename
“Queen’s Pier” to “Central Promenade”?
And who was it spreading rumors that developers are
thinking of demolishing the HSBC building (it’s more
than five years old, after all) to be redesigned so that
the decibel levels of Pinays chattering beneath it on
Sundays can be modulated?
Is the story that Chater Road along the Mandarin Hotel
and Legislative Building will be renamed Luzviminda
Drive just a cruel joke?
Isn’t another conundrum the one about people
wagering when the Chief Executive will finally appear
in public wearing a regular necktie, thus putting an end
to silly remarks that he resembles that cute Disney
fowl? And will it ever be revealed that the late
zillionaire Nina Wang bequeathed a neat sum to her
Filipino amah who had been faithfully styling her
pigtails?
More to the point, what about newspaper reports that
the Hong Kong government may raise the minimum
wage, perhaps also restoring foreign domestics’
salaries to their former levels? Wouldn’t this be a
vindication for the migrant workers whose wages were
arbitrarily and unjustly slashed when the economy
was in the doldrums?
Weren’t those local workers and unionists who
demonstrated by marching backwards to Government
House on April 29 to press their demands a gutsy
bunch?
So why is it, now that Hong Kong’s economy is
booming, that the fat cat officials aren’t thinking of
spreading some of the wealth around, particularly
among the lowest wage earners? Is it fair that street
sweepers earn HK$4,500, toilet cleaners earn
HK$4,850, while domestics entrusted with the care of
Hong Kong’s families, earn a mere HK$3,400?
On top of which, why were demoralised Pinoy migrant
workers viewing the senatorial elections in Manila by
saying “Wala namang mangyari, mandadaya pa rin
sila”?
Why is everyone so jaded this year, compared to the
fine enthusiasm displayed during 2004’s presidential
election?
Hadn’t we been clamoring for absentee voting not too
long ago, so why are we being so perverse now? Is
the reason many won’t bother voting this May because
the winner of the 2004 presidential election (that one
on whom great hopes were invested) turned out to be
a huge disappointment – especially for female voters?
Was it foolish of us to dream of having an intelligent
female president rejuvenating her country, instead of
yet another male leader ruining it?
Why is it, whenever some slick senators turn up in
Hong Kong to take a breather from the quagmire in
Manila, many folks line up with them to smile into the
cameras as though the junketing politicians were God’
s Gift to the Philippines?
By calling themselves the Genuine Opposition (GO –
also termed GaGO by a prominent Manila analyst), are
those pols implying that oppositionists in the Party List
are bogus? Does the Pinoy tendency to vote for
vacuous filmstars and flakey athletes prove that we
simply refuse to take life seriously, which is why we’re
forever cracking jokes?
Has this state of affairs been caused by a meltdown of
our brain cells because our eyes are forever focused
on moronic TV shows, our ears constantly glued to
banal cellphone chatter and our fingers incessantly
tapping out illiterate text messages?
Do we prefer to live in a fantasy world peopled by
clueless celebrities and smarmy preachers because
real life is such a snake-pit? Is it all really an escape
from the daily grind of wiping kids’s bottoms,
scrubbing toilets, cooking noodles, walking dogs,
haggling with vendors and putting up with cranky
employers?
Isn’t all of life just one big question?
Is the story
that Chater
Road along
the Mandarin
Hotel and
Legislative
Building will
be renamed
Luzviminda
Drive just a
cruel joke?
that Chater
Road along
the Mandarin
Hotel and
Legislative
Building will
be renamed
Luzviminda
Drive just a
cruel joke?
We're living in a world of uncertainty ...
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